The Maronite Archbishop of Damascus: "It is an apocalypse, we await the resurrection"

ASIA/SYRIA - 

Damascus (Agenzia Fides) - "One lives an apocalypse in Damascus, and we hope with all our heart, mind and strength, that resurrection may soon arrive": is what is said in a message sent to Fides Agency by His Exc. Mgr. Samir Nassar, Maronite Archbishop of Damascus. In the dramatic testimony sent to Fides, the Archbishop said: "Since Tuesday fighting has been raging in Damascus with heavy weapons, tanks and helicopters, in a city full of civilians. The destruction is enormous. What an ordeal! The clashes are taking place in the streets and moving from one district to another. I cannot sleep for fear and for the noise of bombs and gunfire. The temperature is above 40 ° and often there are power outages. There is insufficient supply in many areas, we are short of bread, vegetables, cooking gas and fuel for the furnaces. The population is terrified and does not know where to take shelter. The roads to Jordan, Iraq, to Aleppo and the north area of Homs are closed. You see a long snake of people fleeing on the road to Lebanon: an exodus that occurs in the general panic." 
Turning to the displaced of Damascus, the Archbishop says: "I hope you find a home, remembering that in the past, the Syrians welcomed the Palestinian, Lebanese and Iraqis refugees."
Mgr. Nassar continues: "the few faithful who had the courage to come to Mass lit many candles at the tomb of the Blessed Martyrs of Damascus. They exchanged greetings and tears, in fear of seeing each other for the last time, before returning home between gunfire and explosions." The violence that has torn the other cities of Syria had been spared in Damascus: "Now it is our turn to suffer and die. We have just built a shelter under the stairs, to escape the bombs and the cellars of the parish have been cleared up. It is an apocalypse: we hope that resurrection arrives soon, after much suffering." (PA) (Agenzia Fides 20/7/2012)

ASIA/SYRIA - Appeal from Damascus: "Keep out the civilians from the fighting, No to sectarian revenge"

Damascus (Agenzia Fides) - "We urgently need to protect civilians. There is a danger that the season of revenge begins and that the civilians of Damascus are treated as 'traitors' because they have not taken an active part in the revolution": is the warning that reaches Fides Agency by some families in the neighborhoods of Qassaa and Jaramana, where up to 100 thousand between Christians and Druze live. Many are closed in the basements of homes, others have left and are sleeping in schools, other families are still fleeing the city. In two districts, the scene of fighting, there are hundreds of revolutionary fighters, nestled among the houses of civilians: Fides receives the appeal from Muslim and Christian families, "not to involve civilians in the fighting, in these tragic hours, and to respect the Geneva Convention on the neutrality of civilian homes." "Thousands of Sunnis, Christian, Druze and Alawite civilians are in fear - notes a source of Fides in Damascus - because a 'proscription list' is beginning to circulate."
Damascus is paralyzed: because of the conflict, some neighborhoods have been emptied, in some areas there is lack of electricity and water, one begins to see gangs of looters and plunderers. Only yesterday 20 thousand refugees went towards Lebanon. "Among the revolutionary fighters there are armed gangs outside the control of the Free Syrian Army and the National Syrian Council: Who will stop them from taking revenge and carrying out sectarian violence? It promises to be a terrible month," concluded the source of Fides.
Meanwhile, among the civilian population there is a spirit of solidarity that goes beyond religious affiliation: two famous landmarks of the city, the great Omayyad Mosque and the Shrine of the Conversion of St. Paul, have brought together youth and adults, Christians and Muslims, to pray for peace and reconciliation. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 20/7/2012)

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